Neighborhood Spotlight
Contracting: Strategy, Agreement
and Commitment
http://www.legacyfdn.org/neighborhood-spotlight.php
The difference between involvement and
commitment is like a bacon and eggs breakfast…
the hen was involved, the pig was committed.
WELCOME AND OVERVIEW
Technical Assistance Team
• Andy Fraizer, Executive Director
Indiana Association for Community Economic
Development (IACED)
• Jim Capraro, Capraro Consulting
• Rose Scovel, AICP, Director of Capacity
Building, IACED
• Rachel Mattingly, Program Manager, IACED
Neighborhood Spotlight
• Neighborhood Spotlight
– Focused on places and the people in places
– Not a coalition around a population or activity
• Goals
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Common agenda
Shared measurement
Mutually reinforcing activities
Continuous communications
Backbone support
Overview
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Exercise
Strategy: Collective Impact
BREAK
Agreement: Visioning and Writing the Collective
Impact Plan (Contract)
• Commitment: The Plan (Contract)
• Exercise
• Q&A
What is your experience with plans/planning?
EXERCISE
THEORY OF CHANGE
What is a Collective Impact Plan/Contract?
STRATEGY: COLLECTIVE IMPACT
Elements of Collective Impact
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Common agenda
Shared measurement
Mutually reinforcing activities
Continuous communications
Backbone support
Why do we need a plan/contract?
• Communicate with a single voice what a neighborhood
desires for itself with a clear vision and action plan
• Communicate that the neighborhood residents and leaders
have “skin in the game”
• Establish results based accountability for implementation
• Make systemic, strategic investments and improvements,
not project-by-project
• Leverage resources of time, talent, and treasure
What Types of Plan Are There?:
Plan Typologies
• Scale
• Topic
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State/National
Regional
County
Municipal
Neighborhood
Sub-Area
Corridor
Site
Comprehensive (Land Use)
Transportation
Parks & Recreation
Utilities
Housing or Homelessness
Strategic (organization or
business)
– Sustainability
– Capital Improvements
What Defines a Collective Impact Plan?
• Neighborhood scale
– Place-based, Place-driven, Place-centric
Elkhart
46807 Neighborhoods
What Defines a Collective Impact Plan?
• Holistic
– Includes the whole community in an effort to envision
a greater future
• Ideas come from formal and informal leadership and
residents, not outside professionals
– Includes a wide range of topics affecting
neighborhood quality of life
• E.g. affordable housing, schools, parks, health care, child
care, community safety, community building, social services,
cultural amenities, economic opportunity, etc.
What Defines a Collective Impact Plan?
• Focused on implementation
– Internally and externally relevant
– Provides an action plan
Why do Collective Impact Planning?
• An engaged citizenry is essential to healthy
neighborhoods and communities
• A holistic approach ensures that resources are
deployed strategically to produce the best outcomes
• Collective Impact doesn’t choose between
developing people and developing place, but instead
provides a framework for both to thrive together
Why do Collective Impact Planning?
Community-based organization
as “one man band”
Retail Revitalization
Health
Safety
Housing
Workforce
Human Service
Education
Economic Development
Partnership/Collaboration/Network
Quality of Life Plan (social contract)
Housing
Retail Revitalization
Health
Economic Development
Education
Safety
Workforce
Human Service
What does a Collective Impact plan do?
Through active community involvement, a plan…
• Yields a neighborhood’s vision for its future
• Details clear goals to achieve that vision
• Articulates an action plan to reach those goals
Who needs to be involved?
• Formal leadership
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Access to capital and resources
Connections/network
Work relates to, serves, or impacts neighborhood
Decision makers
• Informal leadership
– Have a “following”
– Can bring people to the table
– Passionate about the neighborhood
Who needs to be involved?
• Formal
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Banks/financial institutions
Places of worship
Human service providers
Schools
Government
CDCs
Anchor institutions
Child care providers
Recreation centers
• Informal
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Neighborhood associations
Neighborhood watches
Youth leaders
Entrepreneurs
Activists
Local clubs
• Lions, Eagles, Rotary, etc.
• Sports/recreation
• Activity
A Note on Language: Contract v. Plan
• People who have been affected by (or engaged in) ineffective
plans or processes don’t like “plans”
• Some people believe plans/planning processes are weak on
meaningful participation (and some are)
• Plans don’t sound like actually DOING something to some
people
• People understand in a “contract” everyone is giving and
receiving something; ups the ante for continued participation
• People understand that contracts are mutual commitments
BREAK
How do we move from vision to commitment?
AGREEMENT: VISIONING AND
WRITING THE PLAN/ CONTRACT
Process
ORGANIZE
DECIDE
• At least 100 one-onone interviews
• Report back
• Visioning
• Task Forces/
Working Groups
• Action Planning
• Early Actions
ACT
• Collective Impact
Plan/Contract
• Rollout Celebration
(Going Public)
• Implementation
• Evaluation
Listening
• Community members share their priorities
and passions during the interview process
• This feedback is collected, organized, and
reported back to the community
• The report identifies common themes or
topics that emerge from the feedback
Visioning
• Gather together in shared discussion
• Answer the question –what is different in 10
years?
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What is different?
Who made it happen?
When did it happen?
Where did it happen?
Why did it happen?
Visioning
• Visions are framed in the positive…
– Clean: not the trash has been reduced/eliminated
– Safe: not the drug dealers are gone or the
shooting has stopped
– Healthy: not the kids aren’t obese or smoking has
been reduced
– Well-maintained: not blight has been addressed
Visioning
• Visions describe the future
– Not the path there, but the end game
– The plan/contract describes the path
Visioning Session
Vision
• The vision statement will be crafted from key
ideas/themes identified in the visioning
session
• The themes will form the working groups to
develop the path to achieving the vision
• Do not try to group wordsmith the vision – it
loses its magic in the process
How do we get from Vision to Plan?
It will take Work. Collaboration. Investment of time
and talent.
– Task Forces/Working Groups do the majority of the work
in taking the neighborhood from vision to plan
– Community Builders support the task forces with logistics,
making connections, as a liaison to planner, and with
coordination between task forces
– Planner supports with needed data, maps, and
information
Task Forces/Working Groups
• 5-8 task forces organized around topics/themes
from vision
• Chair or co-chairs facilitate the group
• 4-10+ people per task force
(can overlap with caution)
• Meet ~6 times – sustain & concentrate energy
• Charged with developing goals and action plans
Task Forces: Example
Near Northwest Neighborhood is a thriving,
diverse, and attractive neighborhood with
vibrant business districts and corridors
providing local opportunities to work and
build wealth, active parks and open spaces
connected to the river, and numerous
neighborhood and community events. It is a
beautiful neighborhood that values and
celebrates everyone, is walkable with strong
connections between the neighborhood and
jobs, and celebrates its rich history with the
work of local craftsmen and entrepreneurs.
Youth are fully engaged in the life of the
neighborhood, as are institutional neighbors
like Memorial Hospital and Notre Dame.
Near Northwest is a neighborhood of choice
and seen as a highly desirable place to live,
work, and play.
Connections &
Communications
Youth &
Families
Near Northwest is a
neighborhood of
choice and seen as a
highly desirable place
to live, work, and play.
Infrastructure
&
Connectivity
Quality
Housing
Safety
Economic
Opportunity &
Redevelopment
Task Forces: Chairs/Co-Chairs
• Preferably resident leaders
• Passionate about the topic and have knowledge
or strong interest in learning
• Strong organizational skills and small group skills
• Attend training and facilitate task force meetings
• Assist with editing the draft plan
Role of the Task Force Chair
• Convener
– Work with community builder to identify and recruit task force
members
– Bring task group together for working sessions
• Facilitator
– Manage the meetings: introductions, agendas, outcomes
– Ensure everyone is able to participate as fully as they desire
– Responsible to the process – not going rogue
• Cheerleader
• Coordinator (communication between chairs)
Task Forces: Members
• Seek out those who demonstrated passion and
knowledge on the topic during 1-on-1 interviews
• Formal leaders: generally participate because of
expertise or resources related to topic; even better if
they are passionate about the topic and/or are residents
• Informal leaders: generally participate because of
passion
• Should be diverse—age, length of time in neighborhood,
race, profession/background
Task Forces: Tips
• Be clear about the time commitment and expectations up
front
• Good to have task forces meet at same time/location and
have a report out at the end (not always practical)
• People are people: 80 percent of the work will be done by 20
percent of the people
• Set expectations and boundaries for the task forces
• Food brings people together
• Continue 1-on-1 engagement
Task Forces
• Sustain & Concentrate Energy
– Cultivating leaders
– Harnessing passion
– Creating networks and relationships
• Formal leadership needs to bring their organizational
plans to the table
• Example: Indianapolis Near East Side
Role of Community Builder
• Logistical support
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Maintain list of task force members and contact info
Communicate regularly with task force chair(s)
Schedule date, time, location for task force meetings
Collect meeting notes/outputs from task force chair(s)
• Cheerleader
– Make the food and fun happen
– Build networks by encouraging and connecting people for 1-on-1
interviews and logging results/information
– Media attention (when appropriate)
Role of the Supporting Organization
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Provide data, maps, information
Answer questions about process and direction
“Push back” on ideas proposed by the task forces
Provide professional guidance on processes, programs, or
tools that may be needed to reach goals
• Assemble the draft plan
• Coordinate with Community Builder
• Finalize the plan
Model Task Force Process
• Meeting 1: Identify issues; present plans already
developed
– Interim - assign research actions or actions from meeting 1
• Meeting 2: Brainstorm strategies
– Interim - research on specific strategies (learning from others community of practice)
• Meeting 3: Brainstorm strategies and draft action plans
– Interim - research on specific strategies (learning from others community of practice)
Model Task Force Process
• Meeting 4: Find partners; garner commitments
– Interim - consenting parties identified
• Meeting 5: Find partners; garner commitments; finalize
action plans
– Interim - consenting parties identified
• Meeting 6: Celebrate completion
COMMITMENT: THE PLAN/
CONTRACT
From Task Force to Plan/Contract
• Supporting organization consolidates all information
from process and adds maps, data, background
information
• Supporting organization formats action plans into a
single style
• Supporting organization produces draft document for
review
– NOTE: Content comes from the task forces; only addressing
format and background information
• Review by Task Forces (chairs) and Community Builder
• Final document is produced by supporting organization
What does a Collective Impact plan do?
Through active community involvement, a Plan…
• Yields a neighborhood’s vision for its future
• Details clear goals to achieve that vision
– SMAART goals
• Articulates an action plan to reach those goals
– Actions, Timeline, Responsible Party, Performance
Measures (Indictors)
SMAART Goals
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Specific
Measurable
Aggressive
Achievable
Relevant
Time-bound
Action Plans
Action Step By Whom
By When Resources
What
Who’s
Deadline
needs to be responsible?
done?
Step 1:
Step 2:
Financial,
human, and
other
resources
needed
Performance
Measures
Communication
Plan
How will we
know we are
successful?
Who should be
informed and/or
involved?
Knowing what you know now – who needs to be at the table?
We are naming names.
EXERCISE
9AM-12PM, IBEW Hall
JUNE 18: GOING PUBLIC
QUESTIONS (AND ANSWERS)